Ancient cemetery provides peek into Philistines’ lives, health

Burial site of hundreds of Israelites’ mysterious enemies could yield clues to population’s origins

GRAVE FIND A researcher cleans the skeleton of a person interred around 3,000 years ago at a recently discovered Philistine cemetery along Israel’s coast. A small jug was placed on the dead person’s face at the time of burial.

SAN ANTONIO — A roughly 3,000-year-old cemetery on Israel’s coast is providing an unprecedented look at burial practices of the Philistines, a mysterious population known from the Old Testament for having battled the Israelites.

Work at the Ashkelon cemetery from 2013 to 2016 has uncovered remains of at least 227 individuals, ranging from infants to older adults. Only a small section of the cemetery has been explored. Archaeologist and excavation director Adam Aja of the Harvard Semitic Museum estimates that approximately 1,200 people were interred there over a span of about 100 years.